"Let Me Eat Cake"
Morning Dispatch
When Marie Antoinette, the 18th century French queen, was told that the country’s peasants were starving, she allegedly said, “Let them eat cake.” She did not actually say that—it’s entirely apocryphal--but I have no doubt it accurately represented lack of any real concern regarding starving peasants. In 2025, in the richest country in the history of the planet, Americans now have their own Marie Antoinette, with a twist.
On Saturday, November 1st, roughly 42 million Americans, 39% of whom are children, lost access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP. This vital service lost funding because of the ongoing government shutdown and the Trump regime’s unwillingness to tap into an almost $5 billion fund that would have made it possible to continue making SNAP payments.
On Friday, federal judges in Rhode Island and Massachusetts ordered the Trump regime to use those emergency funds to keep SNAP running. But as is his wont, Donald just announced he plans to ignore this judicial order to force Democrats to capitulate to Republicans in order to re-open the government:
SNAP BENEFITS, which increased by Billions and Billions of Dollars (MANY FOLD!) during Crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous term in office (Due to the fact that they were haphazardly “handed” to anyone for the asking, as opposed to just those in need, which is the purpose of SNAP!), will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!
As NPR notes, even if the federal government had agreed to us the funds:
Benefits will be delayed in November regardless of the outcome of the court cases because many beneficiaries have their cards recharged early in the month and the process of loading cards can take a week or more in many states.
Based on Donald’s post, things will be getting much worse for those tens of millions of Americans already worried about how to feed themselves and their families. But not only does he not care, he seems he’s actively finding ways to demonstrate just how indifferent he is to the plight of the American people.
With the shutdown stretching into its second month, you would think that Donald would have spent the weekend negotiating to reopen the government and avoid the terrible optics of deliberately allowing children to go hungry. Instead, he threw a Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago. I’ve seen a lot of reports calling Donald tone deaf, but that is a way to let him off the hook. The choice to host that party is of a piece with the choice to build a $350 million ballroom after razing the East Week—it is intentional and a clear demonstration of Donald’s priorities.
He, of course, will continue to blame the loss of SNAP benefits on the Democrats. Over the weekend, he told ABC News:
We voted 14 times to open the country. We have voted 14 times to open the country and they vote to keep it close. All they have to do is vote to open the country, and we only need five Democrats.
Actually, they need seven Democrats, but government isn’t one of Donald’s strong suits. Also, Republicans are in control of every branch of government: they control the executive branch and they control both houses of Congress. They are responsible for negotiating with Democrats to give them some incentive to join with them to reopen the government. Democrats cannot in good conscience join with Republicans if Republicans refuse to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies, without which millions of Americans will lose health insurance and millions more will end up paying significantly higher premiums.
Donald, as always, has his finger on the pulse of what matters most to the American people: on Friday, he announced”
I renovated the Lincoln Bathroom in the White House. It was renovated in the 1940s in an art deco green tile style, which was totally inappropriate for the Lincoln Era. I did it in black and white polished Statuary marble. This was very appropriate for the time of Abraham Lincoln and, in fact, could be the marble that was originally there!
And minutes later:
The Refurbished Lincoln Bathroom in the White House — Highly polished, Statuary marble!
While the government refuses to release funds to continue SNAP benefit, it’s worth asking who paid for that renovation. According to The New York Times:
The White House did not say, in response to questions, who paid for the renovation, how much it cost or which contractor built it.
The White House refuses to answer a few simple questions because the answer is almost certainly that you and I, the American taxpayer, paid for it.
There are also still questions about who is paying for the aforementioned ballroom. Donald insists its a combination of private donations, a lot of them from corporate entities. Donald promised to disclose the identities of those donors as a testament to how above board it all was. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said:
We have released the full list of donors thus far. Perhaps there will be more people who want to generously contribute to this project. And the President, yes, has committed his own resources, and when he releases that information, which I’m very confident he will, you will all see that… I would also just add [that] the President has been incredibly transparent. I would reject any notion otherwise when it comes to this ballroom project.
According to The New York Times both of them are lying:
The White House withheld the identities of several donors to the project. . . . A list released last month by the White House of more than three dozen donors omitted donation amounts, as well as the names of several individuals and companies that collectively have billions of dollars riding on the outcome of administration policy decisions.
This is clearly quid pro quo. The people and corporate entities donating vast sums of money for something so outrageously unnecessary will certainly expect something in return. And because Donald is for sale, he will give them whatever they want as long as they keep throwing money at him.
Donald cares more about the ballroom and increasing his wealth than he cares about starving children in America. American corporations and the extravagantly rich men who lead them are happy to continue making money off the backs of the American people. It is that simple.
I mentioned Marie Antoinette earlier. Let’s pretend for that she actually did say, “Let them eat cake.” At least she wanted them to have cake. What Donald is saying to the American people through his actions is, “Let me eat cake.”
He may sit on a marble toilet in a marble bathroom… but his shit still stinks like everybody else’s
The step father of a friend, someone fascinated by history, once told me what he had learned about the Marie Antoinette quote. Who's to say whether it is true. Here's what he told me: When the palace baked bread or cakes, the ovens were lined with some kind of dough in order to soften the temperatures. When the baking was done, the ovens had to be cleaned and the dough lining the ovens scrapped off. The scrapings were known as cake, so whether it was Marie or someone else, saying "let them eat cake" was insulting, in other words let the peasants eat crumbs and bits and pieces.